There's no ifs, and's, or but's about it: the Detroit Lions have to win today's Christmas Day contest against the Minnesota Vikings in order to stay somewhat alive in their pursuit of a postseason spot. While things feel completely dire right now, this is a roster that's, more or less, built to win now. We'll see if they remember that against the Vikings.
Detroit needs a ton of help to keep their slim postseason chances alive over the holiday week. Aside from a win in Minnesota, they'll need a few other NFC teams to have a bad Christmas in order to increase their statistical odds of making the playoffs from a current 16 percent to somewhere around 40 percent.